BOYS BASKETBALL

There was no defense Leo could use to stop Crane guards Kieran Woods and Willie Conner.

With deft outside shooting, the Cougars' dynamic duo wreaked havoc against the Lions' zone in the first half of Saturday's 75-62 victory. The two also torched Leo's man-to-man sets by breaking down defenders off the dribble.

Each scored 27 points in the win at the Young Shootout, and Conner made six 3-pointers in the process.

"Kieran and I have really linked up," said Conner, whose Tomahawk slam with 2 minutes, 30 seconds left in the second quarter put the Cougars up 35-20. "The whole team actually has linked up and realized it's not about who scores the most points. We've come together and played hard for each other."

Weary from playing their third game in three days, the Cougars (16-2) were outscored 20-7 in the third quarter and committed seven turnovers. Leo (13-6) cut the deficit to two at the end of the third quarter behind a new defensive wrinkle.

"We've been saving our 1-3-1 defense and we turned to that in the third," Leo coach Noah Cannon said. "We did a good job up top with that in the third quarter."

But Crane coach Tim Anderson said the Cougars are "a fourth-quarter team," which showed when they promptly ripped off a 14-0 run to start the fourth.

"When we came to the bench at the end of the third quarter I knew we had tired legs," Anderson said. "We were all tired and hadn't seen our families, but we had eight minutes to go. I asked them to give me the hardest eight minutes they had and then we would go enjoy watching the Bears get to the Super Bowl on Sunday."